


The Devils Own

by GothMoth



Series: May's Phantastical Callings [25]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Blood and Gore, Character Death, Corpses, Danny’s Piss Poor Just Terrible Shitty Luck, Desecration of a corpse, Fully Dead Danny, Gen, Ghost King Danny Fenton, Identity Reveal, Light Angst, Mostly Comedy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-29
Updated: 2020-05-08
Packaged: 2020-05-28 17:37:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 19,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19399087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GothMoth/pseuds/GothMoth
Summary: Dealing with death, or half-death, requires a bit of dying





	1. Dealing With The Devil

“So let me get this straight”, Danny puts his hands on his hips and tilts his head at the other ghost, “you’ll agree to permanently wear repression cuffs, if I let you... kill my human half?”. Danny still can’t really believe this proposition and normally he would laugh at it, before promptly beating the hell out of whomever was requesting to fully kill him. But this, well this was Dan. The monster who could and would destroy the world and zone. Not only that but Danny didn’t have a leg up on him anymore, Dan didn’t need him to exist. And Danny’s no fool, he knows Dan will kill him now. He’s stronger sure, but still nothing compared to his much older full ghost self. It’s not a battle he’ll win, so he’s left having to genuinely consider this “compromise”. 

“Oh don’t get me wrong, I’ll still try to destroy you child. That, and all the other pathetic humans and ghosts”, Dan chuckles as he crosses his arms. “But you’ll be a ghost, fully, no more playing the line. No more human school, or going home a Fenton; just Phantom”, Danny hates the way Dan sneers at him and he fully gets that Dan is probably trying to turn him against humans or something. Cut him off from those he cares about, “my family will still accept me, human or ghost. How are you gaining anything out of this?”. Danny knows this is true and that only makes him more suspicious of Dan’s “proposition”. 

Dan leans in close to his younger self, with a wide grin, “yes well, we’ll see how that goes when you can’t change into Fenton anymore. I’m sure that spectacle will be very amusing to watch”. 

Danny refuses to flinch back from him but he knows Dan has a point here. His parents really don’t recognise him as Phantom, at all. There’s no way that won’t be worse fully ghost, but there’s no way he could leave his family, even at the rather nerve-racking prospect of revealing himself to them, “I’m still me, Phantom or Fenton. I’ll convince them”.

“Oh I don’t doubt you will, they’re fools after all”

“So what? You’ll just enjoy my struggle to convince them? That hardly seems like you’re getting much here”, Danny crosses his arms and glares while Dan shrugs. 

“I get the pleasure of killing my weak human half again, always nice to relive your first kill. It really is the most pleasurable”, Dan chuckles at Danny’s grimace. While Danny can’t help but be thoroughly disgusted.

Danny still finds there are too many negatives for Dan in this deal, “I’ll be stronger, you know, fully ghost. And the repression cuffs will weaken you”. 

“Yes, no longer weighed down by human restraints. A worthy fight would be amusing, now wouldn’t it?”, chuckling deeply, “and I’ll just keep coming back, I’m sure all you’re weak little humans will be quite traumatised to see me”. Danny hates that he’s right there, literally everyone had nightmares for weeks. Tucker often still does, and it certainly won’t help Danny’s mental state much either. But he’s got Jazz, so he’s sure to be fine, “humans aren’t as weak as you think”. 

Dan merely rolls his eyes with a smirk, before brandishing the clawed gauntlets with a, now cruel, grin. Danny can’t help but jerk back from the things, they really do look evil. Dan’s chuckling doesn’t help, “Oh I’m going to enjoy this”. 

Danny stares at Dan, as he mutters, “I didn’t even agree to this...yet”. 

Glaring now, “no way I’m letting you do that first. Suppression cuffs”. Dan feigns disappointment for only a few seconds before stabbing Danny out of nowhere, “who said you had a choice”. 

Danny jerks and screams while Dan dramatically rips him in half, laughing all the while. Tossing Phantom out against a wall as Fenton breaks his leg landing on the building's ceiling. Dan builds up his ectoenergy, destroying the gloves before slamming his hand around Fenton’s head. Shoving his claws into Fenton’s gut and slowly tearing them up through his chest. Grinning as Fenton’s organs splatter out and ribs shatter, “Ah my old first kill, how nice”. Knowing full well Fenton's only got a few seconds, Dan promptly crushes his head as the boy screams. 

Laughing loudly as Phantom flies at him, looking utterly horrified. Dan sensing him, turns around with a cocky grin, licking blood off his claws dramatically, “well now, wasn’t that a mess”. Dan easily dodges Phantoms attack and punches him in the head, “I guess I could live up to my end of the bargain, but I don’t work like that”. 

Danny, however, isn’t as much of an unprepared mess as he was two years ago. Carrying repression cuffs, amongst other things, with him at all times. Usually they were for Vlad but... 

Danny almost can’t believe that it’s still so easy to lock things onto Dan, “you underestimate me old man!”. Dan slides away from Danny and glares at his wrists, “this changes nothing. You’re still a ghost, what hope could you possibly have to maintain your human life”. Dan stands up and grins at Danny, who’s cautiously awaiting Dans next move. Dan simply dusts his shoulder off as he speaks, not even bothering to look at Danny, “it’s not like you can actually stay here, not without your human half to sustain you”. Danny knows Dan’s right, his human half was all that kept his ghost half from needing to spend most of his time in the zone. Though ghosts could stay longer in Amity Park than elsewhere, gritting out through the lingering pain of being split, “I’ll manage”. 

“Ahahaha! You can try and when you fail, inevitably have to spend less and less time here. They’ll move on, you’ll be alone. With nothing but enemies in the zone and unable to stay here, well, we’ll see what you do then. Won’t we?”, Danny can practically feel Dan’s mocking tone. But he smirks anyways, “I have friends in the zone too you know. Unlike you, I’m actually liked and pleasant”. Dan’s smile falters a bit at that, though he snickers, “and I’m sure they’ll just love your new look”. Danny blinks at him confused but doesn’t get a chance to dwell as Dan whips him with ectoplasm into a glass window. Cackling as Danny looks down at his reflection, “now I’ll be enjoying the show so run along home little boy”, as Dan leaves through a portal. 

Danny can’t help but feel a bit freaked out at his reflection, he’s glad his skin is a soft light pale blue rather than Dan’s blueish green. The pointed ears and flaming hair isn’t appreciated though, shivering a bit, “well I’m never having a damn ponytail or facial hair”. Sitting down and running his hand through his hair, sighing, “well, at least my eyes are still green”. Seeing his blunt fingers instead of claws only made him feel better, as he gets up and groans at the dark sky, knowing full well he was expected home over an hour ago. “This is going to suck”.

Danny sits floating above a building across from his home, he’s already tried changing back and nothing. Shaking his head and really wishing Jazz was here. Sure it was great her getting to go to university but not so helpful right now, but knowing full well doing this without her in the know would be extremely foolish, he pulls out his phone. It only takes a few seconds for her to pick up, like always. 

“Danny? Considering the time, what’s going on?”

“Way too much for phone but mom and dad are going to know. As in know know”

“I’m guessing it can’t be put off till I get home can it?”

“No, it can’t be put off at all. And I can’t change either so”

“Wait...why? What way?”

“Frying Pan and it’s, um, permanent”

“Danny...are you sure?”

“Yeah, yeah it is”

“I’m sorry Danny. Do you want me to stay up for Skype? You know, just in case?”

“Probably for the best”

“Alright, you’ll be ok little brother. Like always”

With that he hung up, smiling a little now, as he floats invisibly over into his room. 

The first thing he does is throw on some of his regular human clothing, which is extremely odd to be wearing over his jumpsuit. Danny’s honestly thankful for all his parents' odd little inventions, as he chuckles down at the little spray paint like can; all it can do is negate a ghosts natural glow. Snickering at the can as he sprays it on himself, “this is probably the only time you’ll ever be really useful”. That just left him with the whole flaming hair situation, which is definitely giving off it’s own light. Looking around, Danny shrugs and throws on a thick black beanie and smirks at the mirror, “nice, well just gotta cut the lights now”. Danny’s glad Tucker managed to make it so that none of the house's defenses could sense him as he cuts the main power, back up power, and back up for the backup power. 

Walking in through the front door, he closes it quickly so no light from outside can come in. 

“Sweetie? That you? I’m pretty sure where out for power for a bit”, Danny can hear her tinkering in the kitchen. “Yeah, it’s me”, he tries to keep his voice quiet and steady, hoping the echo goes ignored. Predictably, it doesn’t, “sounds like you might have a bit of a ghost flu or something, Danny-boy”. Danny mutters into his hand, “well at least he doesn’t sound alarmed”. 

Danny easily navigates to the kitchen door but intentionally makes it sound like the trip was less easy, having night-vision was nice and all but it was so very suspicious. Sticking his head in the doorway, he can see both his parents are tinkering away at the table; neither looking too concerned. 

With a quiet nervous sigh, he sits at the table, making sure to stay out of reaching distance just in case. 

Dan, meanwhile, is watching from the shadows and looking through a viewing portal; amused. His younger self has become quite the sneaky bastard. 

Danny rubs the neck of his turtleneck before summoning up the courage to speak, “it’s a bit more than a flu, dad. A lot more”. Danny watches as both his parents stop and put down their inventions, looking in his direction worriedly. “Sweetie what’s wrong?”, Danny’s glad she just looks concerned, not like she’s ready to go on the attack. His dad, however, looks way more suspicious. Opting to talk before his dad gets any, probably right, ideas, “there was a ghost attack a bit ago, I got caught up in it and well...I didn’t exactly survive”.

Danny watches as both his parents slowly go wide-eyed as they take in what he said. Most normal parents would not immediately jump to the realisation that their kid was a ghost now, but these were the Fenton’s; ghost was always the first conclusion. Maddie shakes her head, “are...are you sure? You’re not...glowing and none of our security is going off”. Jack blinks a bit but nods, before tilting his head at Danny. 

“Er, well I didn’t want to be, like, shot at so...”, shaking his head a bit before continuing, “you remember that Fenton de-glow stuff? Yeah, not really any left”. Both his parents look rather horrified now, Danny is seriously hoping that is not at the whole I’m-a-ghost-now thing. “Sweetie, we’d never. You still know who you are so you’re not going to...going to hurt anyone”, she almost looks guilty at even implying that her good-natured son could harm anyone. 

“You cut the lights too, didn’t you? Fenton genius right there, but I’d think we’d recognise our own son”, Jack pauses and frowns a bit, “you don’t look that different, do you?”. Danny’s a bit surprised that his dad is being rather toned down, he’s not sure whether to be worried or glad about that, “well I mean you guys get a bit...excitable about ghost stuff. I do look a bit different yeah, still clearly me but...different”. Danny puts a little bit of strength behind his next words, “and no, I’m not going to go hurting or harassing people”. Danny watches as his mom nods strongly, clearly believing him. While his dad looks a bit guilty, “yeah we are a bit overzealous and I’m way eager to see what you can do, but helping you adjust is more important son”. 

Danny can’t help but mutter about good timing, as the red back up light finally comes on. Though he’s got no clue what his light blue skin looks like under red light, he’s dad promptly gives him an answer with lighthearted chuckling, “light purple is a bit of a girl’s colour, Danny-boy”. Danny instantly blushes at that which only seems to make his dad a bit excited, “Oh! Ghost blush is yellow under red light! Neat!”. This only makes Danny blush harder and move to cover up his cheeks, feeling extremely awkward now. Which Jack clearly picks up on, “Oh, right, adjusting. Um, sorry son”. 

Maddie smiles warmly at her son, “ignore your father, but I’m guessing you’re more blue than purple”, snickering a little, “like the Box ghost”. Danny feels a bit bad for Boxy at how that instantly offends him a bit, not to mention embarrasses him more. Enough so that his long pointy ears flick downwards, out from under the beanie. Groaning with his hand on his forehead “mom! I could have done without that comparison”. In his embarrassment he doesn’t notice his dad move to touch his ears, until he feels it anyway. Stiffening a bit and flicking his, currently yellow looking, eyes over to his slightly crouched dad. Jack pulls his hand back gingerly noticing that, “it’s hard not be curious son, um... you can swivel them?”. Danny honestly doesn’t know but considering Dan can, it only makes sense. Rubbing his sweater covered neck again, he flicks his ears back up by simply relaxing them and gives his dad a cautious smile. Jack beams back at him and nods, while Maddie speaks up, “if it’s anything, sweetie. I don’t think you look much different, though I could see how the fangs could be a bit threatening”. 

Danny blinks a bit before running his tongue across his teeth, muttering more to himself, “how did I not notice that”. Jack chuckles next to him, “well, hopefully that means you’re not too bothered by this”. Jack gets up and sits down near Danny before patting his shoulder. All of them jump a little as the regular lights come back on, revealing that Danny is very much blue-skinned and green-eyed. “Er, um, hi?”, both his parents can’t help but laugh. Though Maddie shakes her head at him, “I’m pretty sure we could already see you, Danny. You being dead is honestly more upsetting than blue skin”. Jack nods at Maddie before turning back to Danny, “your mothers right and you really don’t look that different. We really would have recognised you”. 

Danny fiddles with the beanie, “uh, well I’m covering up some stuff”. Jack notices his white-gloved hand as Danny plays with his hat, clueing in, “I don’t think I’ve seen you wear a turtle neck in years”. Danny blinks at his dad, not really expecting to get called out on the clothing yet, “yeah, my face is pretty much all I’m not trying to cover up. Kind of a long explanation tied to the clothing. Hairs weirder but easier, if that makes sense”. At both his parents nods, Danny slowly pulls the beanie off; revealing the lazy blaze of white fire. Placing the hat on the table before looking to see their reactions. 

Both of them are wide-eyed and Maddie’s mouth is gaping a bit. Jack, with a bit of a twinkle in his eye, “you’re hair, it’s fire! Can I touch it?”. Danny shrugs a bit, “I mean, I don’t know if you’ll get burned but sure I guess”. 

Dan, still watching through the viewing portal, is glaring at the spectacle of Jack practically patting and petting the flaming hair like it’s a freaking dog. Full-heartedly hoping the idiot gets burned. Cold icy fire is still fire and ice can burn too. 

“It’s cold!? Can’t say I expected that!”, Jack chuckles a bit as he tries to cup some of it and it promptly dissipates. Danny can’t help but snicker, “all of me is ice cold, so I’d say that’s pretty expected”. Maddie gets up then and puts her hand to his cheek nodding, “yeah, you are really cold. But that’s fine, so long as it’s not bothering you”. Danny shakes his head, smiling a little, at his mom. Making his hair wave around a bit as he talks, “no, I’m fine mom”. Maddie eyes him a bit suspiciously, which makes him a little nervous, “Sweetie, you seem...kind of like you’re already used to this. It’s like you were more bothered about what our reactions would be, than being a ghost”. 

Now Danny’s flat out nervous, knowing full well that he probably shouldn’t put this part off anymore, “Er, well, it’s new and I’m not quite sure yet how it’ll affect my life or well, death. But it’s not like I didn’t already know about ghosts, I’m more familiar with the zone than most ghosts, so spending a bunch more time there isn’t much of a worry. If I have a concern I could probably just ask ClockWork, though he might just give me a riddle instead of an answer”, glancing at his parents confused faces, Danny rubs his neck before continuing, “before you ask, he’s a friend and mentor. He knows pretty well everything, actually there’s probably nothing he doesn’t know...and I’m getting sidetracked”. Danny shuffles as Maddie shushes Jack, easily picking up that it’s best to just let him talk. Even if what he’s saying doesn’t make sense, “anyways, there really isn’t anything physically for me to adjust to. Outside of looking a bit different and not being human at all anymore, anyway”. Danny feels a bit like an ass, as he’s just confusing them more and more, “look, um, this ain’t really the first time I’ve died. Well, half died is more accurate. You see, I kind of lied...about the portal accident. I didn’t just get a little shock from brushing up against the frame, when it activated”. Looking down at his hands in his lap and fiddling with them, “I was actually inside of it. So the zone literally opened up on me, completely engulfing me and electrocuting me to half death. See, somehow the zones ectoplasm bonded to me and protected the rest of my living cells. Thus half death, and now, full death”. 

Danny watches his parents nervously while they blink at him. Ranges of emotions flicker in their eyes, Maddie’s settle on worry while Jack’s are dejected. “Son, why? Why did you hide this? I’m sure we could have done something”. Maddie nods before going wide-eyed and looking sad, “you’re only telling us now. Because... because you don’t look human anymore”. 

Dan flat out cackles at this, waiting for them, in their pathetic human hurt, to reject him. Though he knows full well they won’t, but this evil bastard can dream, can’t he? 

Danny rubs at his sweater neck and looks away, “you’re not wrong. And I’ll admit it was largely because I didn’t want you to kill me or send me to the zone or experiment or...try to fix it. But it was also to protect you, the less you knew the less likely you’d get involved in some mess or another”. Now both of them look completely dejected, with Jack flinching at his previous comment. Danny chuckles weakly, “stupid thing is, I knew you wouldn’t harm me if you knew. Figured that out for sure after about a year, but hiding it was routine by then and I guess I was a bit of a coward”.

Maddie’s speaks while Jack looks a bit less bummed out, “you’re right that we wouldn’t, I’m sorry that you ever feared we would. And all kids fear being open with their parents, sweetie. But what could you possibly be getting up to, to need to protect us?”. Danny grimaces and that only concerns Maddie more, “you've been abducted or trapped at least four times purely for being related to me. You were even murdered once for it”. Danny frowns and shakes his head as he keeps speaking, “my life is stupid dangerous, but I’m fine, I’m happy. I’m leading a good, um, existence; even if it isn’t exactly safe and I’m not about to say I don’t enjoy all the fighting, hurling witty insults, protecting people and so on”. 

“Son that is both strange and worrying, but I can’t say I don’t get it. What we do is dangerous too but we wouldn’t trade it for anything. Except family”, Danny can tell his dad’s trying to give him a meaningful look. Clueing in, Danny waves his hand dismissively, “you guys don’t need to quit being hunter’s, I’m ok with it. Though I could do without the anti-ghost stuff just laying around everywhere. Some of it affected me before, now probably all of it will”. Both nod, feeling more comfortable with this topic over their sons' apparently dangerous lifestyle. Maddie smiles though can’t help eyeballing his hair, “of course, and I guess we really should put your ecto-signature in everything so you don’t set it off”. Danny can’t help but chuckle, “too late, Tuck did that well over a year ago. That’s part of the reason the house isn’t trying to destroy me. Though, I’m guessing full death probably made my signature stronger”. Jack slaps his son on the back and grins widely at him, “again, sneaky Fenton genius”. While Maddie sighs, “so you’re friends know then?”. Danny nods at her, “they were there, for the accident. There’s no way they couldn’t know, they thought I flat out died. Well, until I changed back into a human anyways”. Now their both looking at him confused again and this time he has no clue why. Jack tilts his head, “what do you mean back human? You were a ghost?”. 

“Um yeah? Can’t exactly be half ghost without also having a ghost form. I could change pretty well on command once I figured out how”, Maddie mouths “duh” and chuckles. While Jack is even more excited now, “so you already know what it’s like being a ghost! No wonder you’re pretty ok with this!”. 

Danny nods, “yeah that’s pretty much why the clothing is harder to explain. And why I wasn’t sure you’d recognise me. You never have before and I looked far more human before. You’ve see my ghost self nearly every day for the past two years. Heck, I have literally transformed right next to you. You even called me on it and yet...”. Jack and Maddie would feel a bit saddened if Danny wasn’t clearly laughing. 

“Well you sure seemed to have gotten some amusement out of fooling us”, Maddie shakes her head, amused herself, as Danny nods almost sheepishly. 

“Is it bad that I can’t think of what ghostie you could be? All of them seem so unlikely”, Jack tilts his head at his son genuinely trying to figure it out but no personalities really match is mild tempered, kind and rather shy son. Danny smiles almost pitifully, “I’m not sure if it is dad. But considering not even Jazz or the other halfa figured it out without seeing me transform, I wouldn’t feel bad. But if you’re trying to figure it out yourself the gloves are unchanged, and my hair has always been white, just wasn’t flaming before”. 

Danny will actually be a bit concerned if that doesn’t give it away, because really? How many other white-haired glove wearing ghosts are there? Especially ones that are daily occurrences in Amity. “Wait there is another like you? And halfa? Is that the title?”. Danny nods at her, “yup, halfa’s the name and the other one is a prick though. A completely power hungry, manipulative, creepy madman. Kind of sad that the only two of a species completely hated each other. The newer third one also hates him, and he created her so...”. Maddie mouths “wow” while Jack slaps his hand excitedly on the table, before poking at Danny’s turtle neck collar; clearly asking for permission to peak under it. 

Danny nods while chuckling, pretty well knowing his dad’s figured it out. Jack slaps the table more after seeing the, now iconic, white and black jumpsuit. Not enough to see the DP but it was enough to tell who’s classic outfit this was, “you’re a hunter in your own sense! And protecting Amity too!”. Jack shakes his head as he settles down a little while Danny just smirks. Jack speaks up again, “but you seem so different? He’s loud, assertive, cocky even”. Danny smirks even more, “if I went around acting exactly the same I’m sure everyone would know. Fenton was shy cause he had a secret to keep. And no way could I get into a fight as Fenton, if I genuinely punched a regular human I’d probably kill them. Even in human form I was ghostly strong. So I let people push me around instead of fighting back. That and if people thought Fenton was weak and unwilling to fight, they wouldn't connect the dots. Especially since pretty much all anyone ever saw of ghost me was the fighting”. 

This is enough to get Maddie to figure it out, everyone knew who the cocky ghostly teenager that always seemed to be in some fight was, whispering, “you’re Phantom? Wow sweetie”. Danny nods and runs his hair through his hair, making the flames wave around his hand. Before phasing his clothing off rather dramatically, as they fall to a heap on the floor. Jack slaps Danny’s DP symbol excitedly, while Maddie talks as she looks him over, “Sweetie you are absolutely right, we would have freaked if you walked in like this; with the lights on anyway. Can’t say how I feel about the new look, it’s definitely more intimidating and fearsome”. 

Danny rubs his neck, knowing full well that will actually get him compliments from quite a few ghosts. But personally, “I can’t say I care for it either. Sure the fangs, and even possibly ears, would have grown in eventually; halfa or not. But the hair is way too similar to someone else, even if it’s not really surprising”. Even noticing Danny’s grimace, Jack grins, “well I think it’s kind of cool looking. Though I do think your previous look was more friendly”. 

“Yeah, made it easier for people to trust me and see me as the good guy when I kind of just looked like a glowing kid. I know lots of folks are going to be put off, not to mention wonder why my look suddenly changed. No one batted an eye at the addition of my symbol but that was not a major change. This... is”, plus Danny would have to explain it to people without giving away that he was once a halfa. That or tell the whole freaking town that the two Danny’s were actually one and the same, and now totally dead. 

Dan takes this as his cue to fuck shit up, promptly setting off Danny’s ghost sense just as he blasts him with an ectobeam. 

“DANNY!”, both his parents yell at the same time while Danny phases straight through a wall to avoid damaging it. Quickly zipping back out, crouched and looking around. Thankfully, he’s gotten good enough with his sense to actually tell what ghost had set it off, practically growling, “should have figured. What? You get bored of watching from the shadows, old man?”. Jack and Maddie both have weapons out and are frantically scanning the room, though making sure to not point their guns at Danny. 

Dan decides to be the dramatic over the top shit he is and walks through a wall with fire blazing around his feet and in his footprints. Uncrossing his arms, he shrugs exaggeratedly and sneers at Danny’s glaring face. While the Fenton’s gape at this guy who looks nearly identical to their son, which just makes Dan laugh, “fearsome is quite right I’d say, and it’s to bad those two fools reacted so acceptingly. It really would have been much more fun to watch them kill you”. Dan laughs as Danny fires a shot at him, teeth bared. And Dan doesn’t exactly care that the Fenton’s copy their child’s actions, but he’ll mock it anyways, as he easily avoids the fire, “and here I thought mother and father dearest said they wouldn’t shot their boy”. 

Dan’s a little too distracted enjoying his parents shocked expression to dodge Danny’s ectobeam and stinger attack, Danny growling, “that doesn’t apply to you! You gave that up when you murdered them!”. Dan grabs his side and laughs, “can’t change genetics, and really they got off easy. Highly combustible hot sauce is much more pleasant than what I gave the rest of humanity”. 

Danny, being much more of an up-close-and-personal fighter, promptly punches Dan in the face; though worried at Dan’s smirking. Quickly finding out why, as Dan’s duplicate slams him over the head with his human corpse. Danny can’t help but jerk back, completely disgusted and disturbed. While Dan cackles, “nice isn’t it? I think it’s a wonderful present. Don’t you?”. 

“You’re one sick bastard, it wasn’t enough for you to just kill me was it?”, this comment is enough for Jack and Maddie to fire at Dan very aggressively. Dan rolls his eyes, blocking the shots with a shield and freezing them, “ah ah ah, you’re not doing anything here”. Smirking as he jumps at Danny, claws and teeth bared; tossing the Fenton corpse to slide next to the parents. 

The Fenton parents are stuck watching as their two flaming-hair, black and white sons pretty much try to kill each other. Both of them can tell this is nothing like the fights they’ve seen Phantom in so many times. This is closer to a horror movie monster brawl than a superhero comedy sparring. 

Watching Dan stomp Danny’s face into the ground while Danny fires blind at him, Dan cackles “this is almost sad, child. Even with the agreed upon repressor cuffs, I’m still the stronger Phantom”. 

But Danny smirks as the houses security system finally boots back up properly, going on full assault against Dan while Danny chuckles, “forgot about that didn’t you?”. Dan glares at him as he jumps across the room, getting hit quite a lot before changing to look like 16-year-old Danny; as the room promptly stops its assault. Smirking at the bewildered Danny, “and what makes you think some security system is going to stop me?”. 

“You have no place wearing my form, monster”, Danny growls out as he pulls out his thermos. Dan responds as he being sucked it, “it’s my form too, always will be”. Danny shakes the thermos aggressively while glaring at it, as his parents unfreeze and collapse to the floor. 

His mom snaps him out of his angry assault on the thermos, “Sweetie, were you just...fighting yourself?”. Jack throws in his two cents, “an evil Danny, clone?”. Danny at first snaps his blazing eyes to his parents but then to his own corpse, promptly phasing it through the ground. Shivering a bit before looking to them and responding, “I wish I could say that thing is a clone. But no, he’s me from the future of timeline that, through cheating, I managed to avoid becoming reality. But due to that cheating he exists outside of time, and yes, he’s the one who killed my human half. He killed his human half at 14 and wanted the “pleasure” of repeating his first kill”. Jack sits down weakly at the table and stares at the bloodied spots on the floor. Maddie walks up to Danny, talking as she notices he’s clearly injured and weakened, “so you... were supposed to become that?”, shaking her head, “you’re hurt, and I think we should all sit down”. Danny nods though his ears flick down in mild shame, talking as they head to the table, “yes, but I’m not him and I never will be. ClockWork saw to that, though I’m not impressed he escaped from ClockWork”. Sighing as he cleans himself off, “though, I guess if ClockWork allowed it then it was better than any other option”. 

Jack seems flat out pissed at this, “how is letting my son get murdered the best option! And he did-that thing did that!”, Jack points aggressively with both arms at the largest bloodied spot on the floor; where the corpse used to be. Danny rubs his neck awkwardly as his mom patches him up, “ClockWork is not really someone you question about things. He can see every single possible future, and he has a major soft spot for me. The only way he’d let something really bad happen to me, is if something far worse would have happened otherwise. That or if either the timeline itself or the world, would be destroyed otherwise. In some ways ClockWork is better viewed as an omnipotent nearly unbiased god, than some ghost”. 

“As always, you are indeed right in your judgement of me, Daniel”, everyone snaps their heads to the childlike cloaked ghost of time. Danny’s the only one to smile fondly though, “let me guess, there’s some big revelation you’re about to give me. That or hint at something I probably should have already figured out but totally didn’t?”. 

ClockWork sly smile confirms Danny’s guess as ClockWork speaks, “all worlds need rulers, my little apprentice. And who’s to say how to best pick the worthy heir. I’m certain that time on this earth isn’t it”. ClockWork tosses the ring of Wrath to him, making the point crystal clear to Danny. 

Danny catches it as he gapes at ClockWork, before blinking and glancing at the thermos, “that...would have been more than just catastrophic. Would the Observants have even allowed that?”. ClockWork nods with a frown, “they only watch and somethings simply can’t be undone. Consider this a rare occurrence of only two doors”. With that ClockWork leaves as the two parents sit utterly confused. 

“Danny-boy? What did any of that mean? What just happened?”

“Did he call you his apprentice? And what is that ring?”

Danny looks at both of them and laughs, “well for one, I was right. The other option would have basically been world endingly bad. Pretty easy choice between being full ghost or world destruction. And ClockWork knows I’d gladly make the compromise of my human side for protecting the entire zone and earth. Especially from Dan”. Glaring at where the thermos used to be, Danny’s glad ClockWork took it though surprised he didn’t even notice, “for two, I’m just going with honesty here, you remember my defeat of the ghost king? Well, that stripped him of his crown. And I guess the zone needs a king, so that role fell to the one who beat him. I was still on the path to becoming Dan at that time so thus, he had the same claim that I did. But since he’s technically older, it would be his by default unless I genuinely beat him”. Danny smirks to himself, “and since Dan unwittingly agreed to the cuffs those didn’t count as cheating”. 

“Wait, son, you mean what exactly?”

“Well, it would seem... I’m the new ghost king now”, Danny holds up the ring as if to prove a point. While his parents both gape at their flaming-haired green-eyed 16-year-old Ghost king for a son. 


	2. Hiding The Devils Mark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny is just to used to this crap

Danny sits awkwardly on his bed, not exactly needing the whole sleep thing anymore. Flipping out his phone as he remembers Jazz. 

“Hey, you can sleep now”

“Told you, you wouldn’t really have to worry. Well much anyway”

“Well the talk went good but Dan showing up did not”

“Dan!?! Are you safe? Are they? Is anyone? Please tell me he’s not just running around”

“He's sealed away, again. Everyone’s fine, though the carpet has some new and very red stains”

“Danny! That doesn’t sound like everyone’s fine!”

“It wasn't from anyone alive Jazz”

“God, that is disturbing and not what I needed for a good nights rest”

Danny, chuckling, “at least you still get to have those”

“We so need to have a talk about that humour of yours”

“And that’s my cue to hang up. How about you just sleep better for the both of us” 

“Not sure that’s even possible Danny, but goodnight”

“Yeah, night”

Danny hangs up and opts to spend the night gaming, completely ignoring his everything for a time. 

Danny frowns at his ghost-shaped clock, “well normally a Thursday wouldn’t be so bad but uh, all of this”, Danny gestures over his body, “isn’t exactly school material”. Flipping out his phone to text his now, most likely awake, friends. The two had pretty much forcefully become very early risers, to deal with whatever bullshit well before school. 

Not even bothering with punctuation, “My room frying pan with extra sauce parent approved” - d

“Dude, fuck your life” - t

“It’s the death of me” - d

“You’re both awful, and I’m already here so beam me up Scotty” - s

“Now see that was awful”- t

Danny, invisibly, sticks his head out and sure enough, Sam’s there. Floating down just as Tucker arrives, grabbing both of them. “Dude, little warning. Especially after last nights bullshit”. Danny talks as he drops them in his room, still invisible, “Tuck, what?”. Sam rolls her eyes at the air, “pretty sure Dan got out, that or someone is a real ass. We’d been seeing him out of the corner of our eyes for like two hours”. Tuck nods, “very creepy. Did not sleep. Do not recommend Dan as a sleeping pill”. Danny though annoyed at Dan once again can’t help but laugh, “I’m pretty sure you got the more pleasant experience. Pretty sure the living room is horribly stained and my parents are probably traumatised”. 

Sam crosses her arms though clearly worried, “ok spill, what happened? And could you cut out the invisibility, we already know you look weird; extra sauce thing is always a “I look fucking weird or more ghost than normal” type of thing”. Danny rolls his eyes as Tuck questioningly taps on his own canines, “Tuck it’s way more than fangs. And the rundown of the night is grade A fucked. Even more so when the least fucked up or weird thing to happen was me literally dying”. 

“Uh don’t you basically do that everyday dude?”, Danny laughs his ass of at that and losses his invisibility. Scaring the crap out of both of them, “dude holy fuck! Uh, nice hair?”. Sam winces a bit, “ok the Dan hair is plain unpleasant, making your hair like that is probably the most petty thing he has ever done”. 

Danny glares a little, “ok I think there’s a slight misunderstanding here”. Danny sits on his bed, rubbing his neck a bit, “guys when I said literally dying, I meant it. Like, my human half was literally murdered. Which I’m pretty sure doesn’t qualify as petty. Especially since he showed up again to beat me with my own damn corpse, in front of my parents”. Both of them stare at him for a bit hoping he’s kidding, Tucker’s the first to speak as they clue he’s not, “dude, what the fuck. You mean you’re full ghost now? Completely dead?”. 

“Fuck Danny, what are any of us supposed to do with this?”, Sam and Tucker both sit down next to him. Danny’s ears flick down a little, “yup, completely fucked. Very dead and fuck if I know. Oh and to add more to the pile, CW showed and you’re looking at the new ghost king”. Tucker weakly smacks Danny on the back, “king thing is almost expected dude but everything else is completely screwy”. Shaking his head, “but I’m guessing, since you’re still at home, the rents reacted not horribly?”. Danny smiles at this, “sure I had to turn off the lights and shit so I could explain before they saw me but yeah. Complete acceptance, dad’s honestly more curious than anything”.

“Good, we all knew they would but Danny, is this just how you look now?”, Danny can’t blame Sam for being bothered by the hair. The rest is much more general ghost crap, but white flaming hair is very Dan. Running his hand through the flames a little, “yeah, stuck with it. Not exactly impressed but really? Can any of us really be surprised? Dan is me, sort of. So looking like him isn’t really unexpected”. Both of them nod, though Tucker wiggles his fingers in Danny’s hair as he speaks, “well at least it doesn’t burn, currently anyway. The town is going to freak and, oh fuck, school dude? Full ghost means no human form?”. Danny shrugs, “I know, but Dan can make himself look like human me so maybe I can too. Bastard did that in front of my parents too. Can’t say I’ve been successful thus far though”. Sam nods thoughtfully, “well how much can you cover up? Makeup will do for the skin, clothing over the suit but everything else?”. Danny smirks and yanks the same beanie over his hair and ears, and points at blackout sunglasses, “I’ve got nothing for the teeth though. But I can just not open my mouth very wide...”. Tucker pokes at Danny’s very obvious glow, “and ghostdeglow for that I’m assuming”. Danny rubs his neck awkwardly, “if my parents can make more, yeah. Not really any left now”. 

“Contacts are another easy fix for the eyes, you just have keep them from glowing. Voice though”. Danny’s only response is a shrug, cause there’s really nothing long-term for that. But thinking about his parents' initial reaction, “ghost flu. Works short term and no one in Amity is going to question that. If I can’t make myself human looking and sounding, I'm fucked though”. Both them nod again, as all three flop back to lay on the bed. 

“And there’s the whole can’t sustain myself out of the zone for more than few days issue. Which I guess we don’t even know is for sure yet but still”, all three jolt as Maddie knocks on their door. Danny sits up a bit, “yeah?”. Maddie sticks her head in and looks at his friends, Tucker’s the one to answer, “we’re just making him human passing, school is still a thing after all”. 

“You’re doing that by laying on the bed? And I’m not sure that’s even possible”, Maddie eyes Danny a bit. Danny smirks, “both of them have passed themselves off as me before. Less drastic but still”. Sam grins and slams a Danny wig on him for emphasis, making Tucker chuckle, “ok that looks very weird over blue skin!”. Maddie shakes her head, laughing, “you have a wig specifically for this kind of thing? Jack would be calling you a sneaky genius again”. The three grin goofily at her while Danny asks, “need the ghostdeglow stuff though, so I hope that stuff is easy to make. Hopefully, I can take a human looking form so once I figure that out I shouldn’t need it anymore”. Maddie nods by then grimaces, “like what that thing did. To look like you, human you”. Danny nods which earns a curt nod from her, “well the ghostdeglow will take at least an hour but that’s do-able”. Danny smiles at her before she leaves. 

“Man Dan is an arse”, currently Danny couldn’t agree with Tucker more. 

After about an hour of packing on makeup, “well that’ll probably work. But it’s really obvious you’re caked in makeup, painfully so”. Danny glares at her, “yeah it damn well feels like it. If anyone asks, ghost flu makes your skin green and I wasn’t going to school like that”. Sam snickers as Danny throws on the same turtleneck and a pair of jeans, searching for some gloves. 

Danny’s adjusting the beanie over his wig, to fully hide his ears; when Maddie knocks again. “Done, Sweetie. And oh wow. That is way more convincing than I thought possible”. Danny smirks at her as she hands him the spray can thing, “welcome to the life, or un-life in this case, of having a secret identity”. Maddie only laughs as she heads back down. 

Promptly giving himself a good spray down and checking himself out in the mirror, “well damn, this might just work. But yeah it looks like I face fucked a jumbo makeup palette or whatever”. Earning chuckles from both of them as they all head downstairs. 

“Son? I thought you couldn’t be human anymore?”, this makes all four of them laugh. Maddie composes herself first, “Jack dear, it’s a disguise. A scary good one apparently”. Danny lifts up his sunglasses to prove the point while snickering at his dad’s clearly impressed face, “Wow you are turning out to be the biggest genius in the family, just applied very differently”. Danny laughs while Sam and Tucker talk simultaneously, “he’s a moron”. Both his parents raise their eyebrows, as Sam smirks, “he’s swallowed at least six sporks accidentally and constantly forgets that dodging is a thing”. Danny shrugs as everyone sits down for breakfast, which he really only eats because it’s routine. 

“Wow Fentit, I didn’t think your “fashion” sense could get any lamer”, Danny rolls his eyes at the sound of Dash’s voice, though hoping Dash doesn’t try to pry anything off. Danny can’t help but find it weird to have to force himself to be quiet. Instead just flipping Dash off, as Paulina comes up snickering, “wow, I never took you for makeup. I’m not sure whether packing on so much is impressive or sad”. The two A-listers don’t even get a chance to do anything as the trio just slides into class, with Mr. Lancer coming in early as usual. Unfortunately for Danny, Mr. Lancer calls on him to read, “I’d really rather not”. Nearly everyone snaps their heads toward him as they hear his voice, Star is the one to pipe up about it though, “what’s wrong with your voice? No way that isn’t some ghost-related thing”. Danny groans, “ghost flu, and no it’s not contagious”. A couple of people make faces at him but Dash snickers, “I think Fenton should read”. Danny glares at him through the glasses, while Mr. Lancer asks him, “if it’s not bad for you, then, yes please read”. Danny rubs his neck as he reads while some snicker at his echoing voice. 

“Well that was uncomfortable”, Tucker can’t help but snicker at Danny’s complaining. “Dude, you know your voice actually sounds good right? Ghostly, but powerful”. 

“Tuck Buddy, I’m damn well aware. If my voice wasn’t powerful sounding that would be weird. Considering everything, not a very good thing right now though”, Danny cringes a bit as some random kid does a double take at his voice. Groaning and talking much quieter, “yeah I so need to work on the voice changing thing. If I even can”. Sam nods at them as they join her for second class. 

By third people were asking Danny to say random shit, Danny was only obliging because it seemed to put Dash off from bullying him. Come lunch, saying “I’m Batman” for the tenth time was getting very old though. 

Danny’s luck only goes downhill after lunch. Sitting in sixth for his second class with Mr. Lancer, as his ghost sense goes off. Sticking his hand up as Mr. Lancer shoos him off, “normally I’d say no and you’d leave anyway, but I’m not questioning it today”. Danny does genuinely appreciate that, until the ghost comes into the classroom and everyone starts freaking out. Danny glares at the laughing Technus, with an arm full of old calculators, “you have got to be fucking me”. Danny only glares harder as Mr. Lancer turns on the ghost shield and starts ushering the class out, while dodging flying electronics. The rest of the class just books it out of the school while Mr. Lancer tries to get Danny to hurry up, “Fenton now is not the time to be daydreaming!”. 

Danny glares at him, and just tries coming up with a good lie, “I’m not, I just can’t leave. Ghost flu doesn’t exactly react well with anything anti-ghost”. Mr. Lancer gapes at him so he proves his point by knocking on the, very solid for him, shield. Before having to yank Mr. Lancer out of the way of a blast. 

Glaring at the busted to Hell door and practically dragging Mr. Lancer by his shirt collar, as they avoid more calculators and ectoblasts. “Child! Why do you drag around the old man!”, Technus is genuinely confused as Phantom doesn’t usually want humans involved, but he also feels somewhat cautious because something about Phantom feels different. 

“Oh I don’t know, maybe because he was trying to get me to leave and then you pulverised the poor door”, Technus lowers his arms and tilts his head at Danny over his voice while Mr. Lancer throws a desk at him, which he easily avoids. Danny turns and gapes a bit at his teacher, “why are you the one teacher here that will actually try to fight the ghosts? And why the hell don't you carry hunter weapons? They’re allowed and I’m sure they work better than a damn desk”. Technus nods a bit before shrugging and going back on the attack, he’s not sure what’s up with Phantom but he’s notorious for being strange. 

Mr. Lancer yelps and actually drags Danny out of the way this time, “I’m not about to let my students get hurt or be the targets, Daniel!”. Danny can’t help but laugh a bit, being the target was like eighty percent of his life or death, “I think I’ll be just fine Mr. Lancer”. 

“The child is correct! Everyone knows him to be more than capable! But today I, Technus, will be the capable one!”, Danny can’t help but glare at Technus and his stupid big mouth. He can’t help but glare harder as the wind Technus is stirring up with all the damn flying microwaves and shit, blows his hat off. “Things can’t be normal for even one day, can they?”, Danny full force throws one of the coffee machines at Technus, which hits him way harder than either actually expected. Danny has a feeling Technus only takes the hit out of shock at Danny’s exposed light blue and clearly pointy ears. And Danny knows that while Technus is a bit of a fool, he’s not an utter moron. Nobody moves for a bit as all the tech crap just falls to the ground, Danny’s a little weirded out that Technus looks sad and angry. “Who did this whelp”, Technus doesn’t hide the venom in his voice, none of them wanted the special little halfa fully dead, but someone clearly did this. And even Technus wants that person to have a very bad day. 

Danny blinks a bit, kind of weirded out, putting a bit of power into his voice because he really wants Technus to just go away, “no one any of you know, keep it that way”. The two stare each other down for a bit before Technus frowns even more, talking quietly for once before slipping through the floor, “sorry”. 

Danny kicks at the random electronics as he goes to retrieve his hat, as he’s picking it up Mr. Lancer walks up behind him, “I’m not exactly sure what just happened but, ghost flu was another one of your, oddly good and creative, lies. Wasn’t it?”. Mr. Lancer keeps talking as Danny straightens up, Findling with the seam of the beanie a bit, while Mr. Lancer keeps talking, “no flu can change a persons physical body like this, and ghosts don’t behave like that to regular people, so what’s really going on?”. 

Danny groans, knowing full well he’s kind of fucked here as he puts back on his hat. Talking as he sits on one of the few not knocked over desks, while adjusting his ears under the beanie, “I’d rather you didn’t ask but I know you’re smart, so how about you tell me”. Normally Mr. Lancer would glare at his most difficult student but his gut feeling just left him feeling sad. Knowing this particular student would lie about pretty well everything, Mr. Lancer goes for blunt honesty, “somehow you died and now, are a ghost”. Sighing as Danny doesn’t even attempt a response other than shrugging, “Daniel, I’d rather know what happened and you’re officially excused from your other classes. Hell, you shouldn’t really be here, not even sure how you are. But considering this town, a causality was bound to happen and with your reckless parents; I can’t claim to be too shocked”. 

Mr. Lancer sits across from Danny and just waits for him to talk. Danny groans a little as he eyes-balls his, clearly not going to believe anything else or let this go, teacher; before folding off his sunglasses. Looking at him, Danny can tell Mr. Lancer’s trying to school his expression, sighing, “like I said, I know you’re smart. But in case you can’t tell, I’m trying to not have everyone know. At least right now anyway, things are complicated”. Mr. Lancer nods understandingly, “of course things are complicated. That’s death, even more so when ghosts are involved. But it is my understanding that not only should ghosts not really remember their human lives but also not still be trying to live them”. 

“I’m different. I’ve been partly dead for years, two to be exact. I lie to cover up ghost shit. I run off to deal with ghost shit”, Danny’s honestly rather annoyed but considering he still can’t make himself look human, he knows he might have to have this talk with a lot of people, eventually. Because obviously, completely covering up his full death was not going to work out, it hadn’t even been a full day and someone had already called him out. 

“You mean to tell me that electrical accident, which you played off almost excessively as being no big deal, partly killed you? If it wasn’t for the fact that, knowing your house, that shock was likely from something ghost related; I wouldn’t believe you. But I appreciate this rare moment of honesty from you”, Danny can tell his teacher means it. Mr. Lancer is always someone who cared, sometimes too much really. Though that did result in Danny having a bit of a soft spot for the man, nodding as he talks, “yeah, though my lies and secrecy were and still are necessary. It’ll all depend on certain things if this becomes public knowledge. With Technus, I highly doubt he’ll keep his mouth shut. So I know it’s likely already public knowledge in the zone but that’s expected and fine. Things are more touchy here”. 

“Well, you are clearly more mature than I knew. Which is honestly concerning Daniel. Care to explain why a high schoolers death would be such big news? Yes, you being a ghost and still in school might be more than a little problem but otherwise? Not to mention why ghosts would care?”, Mr. Lancer can tell Danny’s debating something in his head but judging by Danny’s facial expression, he isn’t going to lie. 

Danny smirks almost playfully, after fully deciding that lying at this point would just make him a complete ass, “I’m pretty sure not only Amity but the stupid GIW might just lose their heads, finding out that not only was the local town hero not fully dead and now is, but is also just some Highschool kid”. Danny’s not sure whether to be impressed or amused that his teacher goes wide-eyed as soon as he said “hero”. Deciding to humour his, honestly favourite, teacher; Danny lifts up his sweater to show of his flaming DP symbol before dropping it back down. 

“Well, that is certainly not what I expected, though it does explain a lot. You’re right this will be a big deal, anything Phantom is. But I am not about to allow some government dogs to harm one of my students, even ghost ones”, Danny shakes his head and laughs a bit as Mr. Lancer gets up, fixes one of the kettles and makes himself some tea. “The GIW can’t touch me unless I let them, pretty much. I’m more worried they’ll interfere with my duties or harass my family. But if they cause too much of a fuss then yeah that will be a problem, their dumb antics have nearly destroyed the zone and earth more than once. It’s entirely possible they could instigate a war”, this makes Mr. Lancer cough a bit and stare at his student. Composing himself a bit, “I did not know those men were that much of an issue. It’s almost impressive how blind the government can be to things. And I guess they wouldn’t exactly listen to a teenager or a ghost would they? Government officials do tend to put themselves on a pedestal, unwilling to listen to those outside their ranks”. 

“Many have tried talking to them, so no they won’t listen. Though with an entire town telling them off, maybe. But if things go bad with them, I won’t be giving them a choice. I rank above them and if they don’t listen, then they’ll pretty well have to deal with the entirety of the zone dropping on them. Like I said, war”, Danny shakes his head and frowns, knowing even if he didn’t give any kind of command, a fair amount of ghosts would lose their shit at a bunch of humans going after and insulting their king. Especially since Danny’s actually well liked, he knows even his enemies are closer to frienemies. But at the same time, a human vs ghost war is bound to make the Observants flip and no way he wants those eyeballs involved. But he also knows that they’re not dumb enough to be unaware that he’ll do whatever he can to make sure shit doesn’t go totally south. Even if he’s not a halfa anymore, he wants to protect both species and worlds. And honestly, a protection based obsession is a pretty damn good one if you ask him. 

Mr. Lancer sips at his tea, thoroughly impressed but also saddened by his strange student, “why would the whole ghost zone come to your defence? And I know you don’t work with the government, so whatever ranking you have they likely will not care”. Danny blinks and smiles a bit warmly, fiddling with the ring under his glove. Sure he didn’t have the crown yet but it may as well be official, “I’m well liked by pretty well every ghost, even my enemies really. It wouldn’t take much for them to come to my aid. But I’m more than just a student, ghostly hero and sort of ghost hunter. The other title I hold isn’t public at all, and preferably will stay that way, regarding the human world anyway, even if everything else comes to light”. Danny will admit he’s kind of enjoying being a startling enigma right now. It’s moments like this where he really understands ClockWork and it really is no wonder the two get along so well. 

Danny can’t help but smirk as Mr. Lancer is clearly egging him to go on, “Mr. Lancer, being some operative high ranking official or even being president of the United States itself; is nothing when compared to the king of an entire dimension. Especially a dimension filled with powerful creatures”. Danny actually has to catch his teachers' teacup as he gapes at him. Chuckling again, “couple that with the fact that the only two beings in existence that are actually stronger than me, are either sealed away or forbidden from interfering unless there’s word ending catastrophe, I’m sort of a big complicated mess that nothing else can really compare to”.

Danny sighs as his ghost sense goes off, “well I’ve probably freaked you out enough for a lifetime and duty calls. But, uh, being all that I may be, I’m not some high and mighty prick and I’m concerned with keeping people safe. So, um, don’t worry?”. Danny cringes at Mr. Lancers stunned face a bit as he turns invisible and flies out the school, after phasing his disguise into his locker. Making sure not to use his intangibility full body/on his face. because his stupid makeup will come off. He knows whoever it is will be shocked by the hair but it’s a ghost, they’re all going to know eventually. He’s more worried about the town’s reaction, can’t fight in a wig though. 

“You...want my human corpse? What the fuck? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised but seriously, what the fuck?”, Danny floats, bent over a bit as Skulker shrugs at him. “Still your pelt, whelp. And I’d say I’ve got the best claim on it”, Danny can’t help but gape at him. Promptly dodging a net and some harpoon thing, “pretty sure its owner has the best claim, tinman”.

“Oh like you’re going to do anything with it, ghost child!”, Danny can’t help but admit he’s right, and the idea of having a funeral and burying himself is kind of really messed up and genuinely disturbing. However, “Skulk, can’t say I even want to know what you would do with it”. 

Danny snickers at Skulker looking disgusted and judgmental, shooting at Danny more aggressively for his comment, “you should already know full well. Like any hunter, I preserve my prizes”. Danny blinks a bit as he gets hit a couple of times, he knows he really should get better at the whole dodging thing but it almost seems pointless. Sure it hurts but he’s way too durable for it to do real damage, “you want to preserve me? That is oddly sweet, Skulkie”. 

Danny feels almost honoured at Skulker’s clear mild embarrassment at being called out. But Danny flat out grins as he clues in that this could be a way to avoid the whole, how to bury his corpse without revealing he was dead or sticking it in the back yard. Because man was that creepy, but his body getting taxidermied is almost just as creepy. “Still very gross and creepy though, but you’re not exactly wrong”, Danny feels more creeped out as Skulker’s face clearly lights up. Skulker stops firing at him and glares at him eagerly, getting an idea because no way is Skulker keeping his pelt or whatever, not to mention being kind of curious if anyone knew about the king thing. Danny crosses his arms as he flies backwards in the direction of his house, “just take the damn pride in getting to preserve or whatever my “pelt”. Not keeping it though. If it belongs anywhere, it’s my castle”. Danny can’t help but laugh at the utterly bewildered look Skulker gets, “oh man that face is worth it. No point in you telling anyone one though, something tells me they won’t quite believe you”. 

Skulker is honestly more excited now, keeping his prize or not, this is basically a job for the freaking ghost king. Not too mention getting to work on such a unique and one hundred percent rarest pelt is beyond his obsessions wildest dream. Eagerly flying invisibly next to Phantom and not even caring that Phantom shoots him jokingly, Danny shakes his head, “you are such a damn creep sometimes. But at least I know you won’t be a disrespectful ass”. If there’s one thing Danny knows Skulker would treat with insane levels of respect, it’s his most sought after pelt. Which is both creepy and comforting. 

Skulker floats a safe distance away from the hunter family’s house while Danny invisibly digs through the living room floor, not having a damn clue how far down he phased his corpse. Frowning a bit at the utterly mangled bloodied thing, he almost can’t wait to see Skulker looking disgusted. Though he’s not sure if Skulker would be more disgusted by that being done to Danny or just by the not-so-pretty state of a “pelt”. 

Floating out to Skulker, still invisible, “no ones to know for now you weirdo. You know how I love to be dramatic, CW will get his kicks too I’m sure”. Danny’s occasional dramatic and rather flashy nature is really one of the few things he doesn’t care that he had in common with Dan. 

“Whatever whelp, but very well. And wow I hope you beat the lights out whoever did that”, Danny nods frowning as Skulker gingerly takes in the shredded corpse; while they’re both hidden in an alleyway. “That thing is sealed away and being kept that way. He’s not from this timeline and he is not someone you should even try finding or going near. You met him in that other timeline, let’s just say you weren’t well off and you wanted him very much destroyed. So did every other ghost, that hadn’t been destroyed anyway, and what was left of humanity”. 

Skulker stares at him, “I’ll take your word then. I’m no fool, I know when you’re serious”. Looking back to the corpse, “it can’t be perfect but...” Danny tries to ignore Skulkers giddy grin. Rolling his eyes at him, “just get out of here before it’s spotted or before I hit you, again”. With that Skulker books it away, gingerly cradling Danny’s corpse. 

Danny’s not too surprised his friends are waiting for him at home, “dude, the hell? Where’d you go?”. Sam and his mom both glare at him but he can see his mom is trying really hard not to laugh, “well, pretty much the whole ghost zone definitely knows, Mr. Lancer figured it out, and Skulker just flew off with my corpse. And what was so funny?”. Tucker actually laughs while Sam slams her head on the table and his mom looks horrified. Tucker wipes at his eyes a bit, “that is so something he would do but also just absurd, especially cause I know you just gave it to him, didn’t you?”. Maddie gapes at Danny as he rubs his neck sheepishly, “he had the guts to ask and he agreed to not keeping it. Just making it not look torn to shreds”. Sam snaps her head up, “taxidermy, nice. Honestly, you getting taxidermied is almost expected, very goth. I approve”.

“How are you ok with that? How are any of you ok with that? And Danny the makeup is not helping this be less messed up”, Danny cringes at his kind of freaked mom. Rubbing his neck again, but phasing the makeup off above the kitchen sink. Washing it down as he responds, “we’re sort of used to all my weird mom, they’ve literally seen me get turned into jello and liquified. Skulker’s whole thing is that he wants my pelt aka skin. He’s a poacher and collector of all things rare and unique. It’s kind of hard to beat me in the rare and unique department. Plus I’m strong, so there’s respect there”. Tucker shrugs, “we’re pretty well sure Danny here is indestructible or something. Might have only been a halfa thing though so who knows”. 

“Aka I'm complicated and also, no offence or anything but I’d rather pass on the whole burying my corpse in the back yard or just leaving it under the living room floor. That’s way more creepy than getting it preserved, even if it is Skulker doing it”. Tucker laughs again, “and really dude, he’d probably rather destroy himself than damage or disrespect anything even close to being your pelt. He’s probably treating it like the freaking holy grail”. 

Maddie sighs while Danny smirks, knowing full well that Tucker is right. Skulker would probably destroy anyone who so much as even attempted to touch it, which was perfectly fine with him. Maddie pinches her nose as she plates everyone’s food, “I can see your point Danny and I’ll admit myself, just the thought of having a funeral for you is unnerving. Especially when you’re still walking around”. Danny frowns a bit through a mouthful, “agreed. But unless I can make myself look human or at least change my voice, there’s really no way to avoid Fenton dying going public; which means a funeral. Especially since I’ve already been called out on it”. Sighing a bit, “at least this way we don’t have to deal with someone asking what the hell happened to me, because my corpse didn’t exactly look pretty. And again, Skulker’s not keeping it so...”. 

Jack sticks his head out the lab door, “Son quick question, do you actually need to eat or are you just doing it because everyone else is?”. Danny blinks a bit though rather happy about the lighter topic, “I can still taste it so I can enjoy it just fine. Even if I don’t need it. Most ghost do still eat, just for the experience rather than needs”. 

“Well, it would be a bit awkward if you were the only one not eating sweetie, so thanks I guess? But if a funeral does have to happen then it’s closed casket, regardless of what state it’s in”, Maddie shivers a bit and glares at the, definitely stained, floor. Sam rolls her eyes at Danny’s slight green blush, “you are so extra Danny. I mean it’s very goth to display bones and taxidermy, but of your own body is almost masochistic and egotistical“. Danny shrugs at her, “um, guilty as charged? I rather like the notion of a reminder for pretty much everyone that I was human and part human, once. Not here though”. 

While his parents share a worried look, Tucker slams his hand on the table looking almost giddy, “dude Phantom, that’s right! Phantom Castle!”. Sam laughs, “well that’s one way to thoroughly both impress and amuse pretty much every ghost. No one else has probably ever or even would display their own corpse”. Tucker claps Danny on the shoulder, “talk about a power move! You freaking well better make one hell of an extravagant and unnecessarily over the top unveiling ceremony or something”. 

“Already got cheesy “I’m really freaking dead this time” ghost paper cut outs in mind. And at least one person will fake die. Plasmius piñata is definitely happening”, Danny is chuckling into his hand while his mom eyes him worryingly. 

Sam waves her off, “Danny’s sense of humour is out to lunch. If he’s joking about his death than that means he’s in a good mood and perfectly happy. We’d be worried if he wasn’t making a joke of this”. Danny nods at his mom, “joking about my half death and, I guess, full death, is practically one of my things. A trope I guess, all us superhero types have em”. Maddie’s still a bit weirded out but thinking back to all his strange jokes, it’s pretty obvious that Danny’s being honest. Danny smirks devilishly, “and I mean you are talking about someone who’s superpower was literally dying on command”. Earning him a few groans. 

Danny is trying to figure out the whole human transformation thing when his mom knocks, “yeah?”. Danny looks to the door as Maddie pokes her head in, “not that I’m complaining but how are you not getting weak or dissolving? It’s been a full day, I figured that your human half was what made you able to stay here before, but now?”. Danny blinks at her a bit, knowing full well that he is a bit weaker nothing drastic though, he hadn’t really been thinking about having to go to the zone, “yeah my human half was doing that. And the reason I’m fine right now, is both because this is Amity and because I’m strong. Amity has tons of latent ectoplasm in the atmosphere because of all the ghosts. Our house and my room have by far the most, because of the portal and me. So ghosts can sustain themselves way longer in Amity than other places on earth”. Danny proves his point by manipulating some of the rather thick ectoplasm in his rooms air into a ball, tossing it in the air a bit, “the ectoplasm that’s latent in my room is more specifically mine so I can manipulate it and it supports me or whatever”. 

Chuckling and tossing the ball to his mom, who inspects it while Danny talks, “that’s why my room’s always so cold. I have an ice core so my everything is cold. But this is not the zone. I can’t just stay here. So yeah, I’ll have to go to the zone eventually but I’d like to try and sort all this out first”. Noticing her frown and sad glance at him, “obviously I’m not going to just stay away. I’ll be around, just a bit less. Can’t say I know how long I need to be in the zone at a time though. Like I said, not quite sure yet how being full ghost is going to affect my existence yet”. Rubbing his neck and glancing out the window, “probably have to deal with the whole ghost king thing as soon as I make a zone trip too”. 

Maddie chuckles a bit weakly, “kind of forgot about that. It’s pretty crazy to think my son is the king of the things I hunt”. Looking at Danny as he meets her eyes, “you sure you’re okay with us being hunters? I mean, you’re a ghost and aren’t we basically attacking your subjects?”. 

Danny smiles softly at her, “it’s fine. Any ghost who comes to the human world expects to get hunted, we pretty much agreed to it. Plus, most who come are looking to start problems. Amity is probably one of the few places that actually gets friendlies, like me or ClockWork. So I guess just don’t hunt the ones that aren’t causing issues”. Chuckling with a smirk, “and obviously don’t hunt ClockWork, that will end embarrassingly for you guys. And absolutely do hunt Plasmius and feel free to annoy any floating eyeballs wearing a cloak. Unless I’m talking to them anyway”. 

Maddie shakes her head, “if you’re sure. But consider all that talk about experiments and destroying, off the table. Okay, sweetie?”. Danny smiles warmly at her, “of course, I don’t want you guys to stop being who you are and doing what you love, just because I’m different or because some of your theories were wrong. Being hunters is part of who you are as people, be like telling me to not be overprotective or not make jokes”. 

Danny chuckles a bit and waves his mom over to the bed, “now feel like being a scientist and shooting out wild theories on how a ghost would go about transforming to make their human form? Cause I’m gettin nowhere other here”. 

Maddie eyes him for a bit before sitting down, tapping her chin, “well, we both saw how that thing changed, so how similar looking was you transforming before to that? And I’m guessing you’ve already try replicating how your transformation felt?”. That was the first thing Danny had did pretty much, so he nods, “yeah, tried that, multiple times actually. I could transform in more than one specific way, so I just tried every one. And it looks and sounds the same, which isn’t exactly helpful”. Danny knows it’s entirely possible that he simply can’t, how Dan became a full ghost and how he did were not the same. Well, actually, the only real difference was the lack of consuming Plasmius. But Danny wasn’t about to go and do that, for so many reasons. Maddie pokes at him, “why not try the reverse?”.

“Um, what?”, Danny’s not following his mom’s train of thought at all. “Why don’t you try the reverse of the transforming feeling or feelings?”. Danny blinks, “so try to transform ghost? Eh, maybe. Seems kinda backwards but”. Danny doesn’t really move or anything, as he tries, having done it so much over the years, made it so simple to do. Not exactly surprised when it doesn’t work, shaking his at her, “nothing”, Danny tilts his head as an idea hits him. He could just try this like using it the way he’d use a normal power. Instead of focusing on the cold light energy and little sparks of electricity inside his veins, that doesn't seem to be there anymore. His rings normally would form like a ball in his chest, where his core was, before shooting out into the rings; and they were cold...

Maddie’s opting to stay silent as it’s obvious to her he’s got some kind of idea, both them jumping a bit as a bright ball of light forms only seconds before expanding outwards. Danny smirks at the floating, but not separating ring. It felt way colder and had a slight blue tint but otherwise not that different. Though it’s clear he’s going to have to work on this since the rings don’t just do their thing naturally anymore. 

His mom mouthing, “wow”, is enough to make him lose his grip on this. She cringes apologetically a bit as the light just snaps back into him. Waving her off as he brings it out again, this time cooking energy around the top half and the lower half, adding a down pull to the bottom and up pull to the top. Smirking as they do indeed shoot over him, and the change does feel different as it goes. Kind of like being compacted into the thermos but with more room.

Looking his glove free hands over before smiling at his mom, “nice”. Maddie shakes her head affectionately, “I would tell you to get some sleep but”. Patting him on the back but jumping as he just snaps back to his new normal look. 

Danny doesn’t blame her for glaring, rubbing his neck, “sorry bout the light show. This works like a new power, not like the transforming I’m used to. Always takes a bit to get good at new powers”. Especially when he hasn’t gotten a new one in quite a while, so he’s not quite as used to adjusting to new as he was in the first year. 

“Well, the weekend coming up will give you lots of time”, Maddie nods at him before kissing him on the head good night. “Oh gross! My head is literal ghost fire you know!”, Danny pats at his hair some while Maddie walks to bed with a soft smile. 

Danny spends most of the night practicing with transforming but also watching to see if it can get exhausted, trying to figure out just how much of his ectoenergy it uses up. None to pleased when it’s clear it uses up a decent amount, nowhere near his wail but a bit more than a strong ectobeam. 

Eventually opting to see how long he can just lay and maintain human appearance, preferably while focusing on it as little as possible. Not too surprised that he does have to actively maintain it now, but it was hardly different than forcing himself not to float; which he was very used to. 

Stretching in the morning, before hopping down the steps. Aiming to be as human as possible for as long as possible, he needed to know the limits of this. “Wow son, either you’re concerningly fast at this or you solved a problem”, Danny sticks his head in the kitchen just before the doorbell rings. Talking as he walks to the door, “option two, testing out how long I can keep it up though”. 

Tucker only looks confused for a few seconds when Danny opens the door, “dude! Nice, you just saved your own ass!”. Danny tilts his head back and laughs, “we all have to do that way too much!”. Tilting his head back down and smiling as they walk in, “it’s not the same though. I have to intentionally maintain it, so no startling me when others are around”. Both them give him a thumbs up but he knows Tucker is going to intentionally startle him at some point, just not in school. 

All of them have breakfast around the table, before the trio wave to he's diff to school. While his parents shake their heads, affectionately, at their overpowered ghost of a son; in the trappings of a human. 


	3. Baring The Devil’s Fruits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny's luck sucks and he's pretty well stuck with the whole being fully dead thing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DannyMay 2020 Day 6: Stuck

Sam eyes him up and down, “you know, should have put on makeup and whatnot anyway, that way if you changed back it wouldn’t be completely catastrophic”. 

Danny pauses in his walking and facepalms, “goddamnit”. Making both of them laugh. 

Sam speaks up again just as they get to school, “how you holding up anyway? Sustaining yourself?”. 

Danny tilts his head, the weakness was definitely starting to be quite annoying and his Core had a tiredness to it. “My Cores got a few complaints but I’m fine for now”, frowning a little, “got probably at best one more day in me”. 

Tucker claps him on the should, “alright, if Phantom’s Keep has changed because of this, then you damn well better show us ‘round dude”. 

Danny rolls his eyes, “duh”, as he pushes in the school doors. Going wide-eyed and yelping at immediately having someone grab his shirt, yank him inside and slam him violently into the school wall. Danny almost wants to glare at Sam for jinxing things when he feels his form flicker, though he manages to get a handle on it almost immediately. 

Squinting open his eyes and praying to everything that whoever didn’t notice. Predictably it’s Dash, predictably he’s wide-eyed having definitely noticed, and also predictably he drops Danny on his ass after a beat. 

Sam and Tucker push the jock back while pulling Danny up. Tucker shaking his head and chuckling, “you have the worst luck man”. 

Danny flips him off while glancing around and mutters, “least no one else noticed”. 

Dash blurts out, “wh- what the fuck Fentaco? You- you’re _dead_ ”. Turning away and putting his hands to his head, “oh god did _I_ kill him? I knew I was to rough last week with that locker thing. Or has it been a while? Oh god. Did I poison him or something when I made him eat my underwear? My dad did say those things could kill a man. Oh god. Have I been beating a dead kid? Oh no I totally committed murder. Oh fuck-”. Sam cuts him off by taking the initiative and -in a slightly surprising show of strength, if you didn’t know the goth- pulls all four boys into the nearest bathroom. 

Shoving Dash against the wall while Tucker runs across the bathroom making sure no one else is here. Danny subtly freezing the door shut while Sam snaps at the jock, “chill out you oaf, you didn’t kill anyone”. 

Danny can’t help snickering, “I don’t know Sam, if this place gets anymore chilly it might just freeze over”. Sam glares at him. Dash just looks confused and freaked out. 

Tucker pats the jock on the back, “ignore him, he can’t resist a good pun”, looking to Sam, “and Sam _did_ practically hand that one to him”. 

Sam shrugs and rolls her eyes, before crossing them at Dash. Glaring up at the jock, “you didn’t kill him and your ‘beating’ couldn’t do shit to him. Got it?”. 

Dash glances at Danny and gulps, he’s not about to argue that he could hurt a _ghost_ with his bare hands, “but- but _how_? How long have you been? How are you even?”, looking down, “have I seriously been beating up a _dead kid_ ”. 

Danny shrugs, “I mean, yes? But only, like, kinda?”. 

Dash looks at him, “that doesn’t make any sense, Fenton”. Then walks off and puts his hands on the counter, “what kind of asshole beats up a dead person”. 

Tucker takes slight pity on him, “the kind that didn’t know?”. 

Sam butts in, “really you shouldn’t bully people at all”. 

Danny shrugs, “eh, better me than someone else”.

Sam points at him, “that’s not the point, Danny”. 

Danny rolls his eyes, “I’m protective, what more do you want from me”. Plus he could handle it better than anyone else, bullying was just a fact of Highschool. 

Tucker rolls his eyes right back at Danny, “a little bit of self-preservation would be nice”. 

Dash looks between the bickering losers, did they just not care that Fenton was _dead_? What the fuck. And that- and this still makes no goddamn sense. How is Fenton even _here_ , not in that Zone place, that shouldn’t be possible, right? How does he look not dead? If he’s a freaking ghost, why doesn’t he defend himself? How long has he been shoving around someone who wasn’t even _alive_ anymore? How? How did it even happen? The goth said it wasn’t him but what else could it be? It was probably his parents. Clearing his throat, “how? Why? When? Where? Who?”, shaking his head, “it was your freaky parents, wasn’t it”. 

Tucker snorts, “geez, make a list why dontcha”. 

Danny points at the jock, “okay first, asking about someone’s death is super not cool. Kinda taboo. So maybe don’t make a habit of that”, shrugging and leaning against the wall, “do you want the first, second, third, or fourth time I’ve died?”. Might as well confuse the jerk, and he really shouldn’t be asking a ghost how they died. Talk about rude. 

Dash sputters, “what???”. 

Danny shrugs again, “well the first two times were only jobs half done and the first got reversed by that W-word ghost. The third was in an alternate timeline that no longer exists. The fourth happened Wednesday”. 

Tucker chuckles at the jocks confusion but looks to Danny, “you should probably hurry this up, dude. Class is still a thing”. 

Danny rolls his eyes, that was a good point though, and drops the human form. Chuckling at Dash blinking away stars in his eyes, “I think you can figure out the ‘when’ all on your own”. 

Dash blinks some more and gapes, “P-Phantom? Fenton is Phantom?”, grabbing his head, “oh god, I’ve been beating up my hero”.

All three of the trio respond with, “yep”. Then glance up at the bell sounding. Tucker looking to Danny, “would you look at that, now we’re late”. Danny shrugs sheepishly, ears flicking down slightly, before transforming human and melting the ice around the door. Turning to open it only to pause at icy mist leaving his mouth and getting a chill. Danny groans and bangs his head into the wall before giving his friends a pained look. 

Tucker nods and motions to shoo him off, “go. We’ll just say you’re still a little under the weather”.

Sam nods and glares at the jock, “and _you_ will keep your trap shut”. Dash instantly nods, he wasn’t about to make _Phantom’s_ -holy shit- existence any harder than he apparently already had. 

* * *

Danny blinks at Ember sitting on the roof and strumming her guitar, “uh, what are you doing?”. 

She waves him off, “what does it look like, babypop”, then actually turning to him and quirking an eyebrow, “well damn. Pale blue and flaming hair too. Nice”, looking away from him, “I ain’t going to ask who, Technus and Skulker already said you didn’t want us after him. That whoever's dangerous. Speaking of Skulker”, turning back to him and pointing her guitar at him, “what the Ancients did you do? He won’t even let _me_ on the Huntsman Island. _Me_ ”. 

Danny can’t help snorting and laughing at that. Well every ghost definitely knew now; at least Skulker really was protecting his corpse. Danny runs a hand through his hair, “I gave him something of a job. Though he practically asked for it”. 

Ember glances at his hand a little wide-eyed, floating over and staring at him, “holy shit Babypop”, shaking her head, “figures though”, then toying with his flaming hair, “oh this would look wicked in a ponytail. Ever think about growing your hair out?”. 

Danny glares and responds somewhat coldly, making the ghost jerk, “ **no** ”. He knows her comment was based in a bit of her own fondness for ponytails and her ego, but just _no_. 

She lifts her hands off his head and backs up a bit, feeling slightly threatened, “okay then, chill. No hairstyle changes for the king”. 

Danny huffs but relaxes some, “so you’re not going to be causing issues?”.

Ember sits back down on the roof and strums at her guitar, “naw. Already annoyed you, and confirmed the things Skulkie blabbed about. I’m just going to belt out some _non_ -mind-controlling tunes”. 

Danny almost feels disappointed, until he spots the Box Ghost slip around a corner. Ember chuckles at his smirk, “figured I’d bring your favourite punching bag”, frowning a little, “consider it my ‘sorry for your loss’ or whatever, gift”. 

Danny smirks and shakes his head, “aw you care”, then zips off. 

Danny has a sneaking suspicion that the Box Ghost is just _letting_ himself be a punching bag, still screams about his righteous boxy fury though; ah somethings never change. Danny lets the guy get in a few hits in return, which Boxy is _more_ than happy about. Embers pop-rock sound makes for a nice backdrop too.

Danny just lets the kickback of his thermos push him to fall through the roof/ceiling of English class. No one else would be there quite yet and teach knew. Plus, he was tired. Chuckling a bit to himself at Mr. Lancer jerking -some of his tea splashing into the air- while Danny lands on his back on a desk. Speaking at the guy while focusing a bit on transforming to his human disguise, “sup Lancer. Not _too_ early am I?”. 

Mr. Lancer collects himself and tries not to stare as a totally human-looking Daniel rights himself to be cross-legged on the desk, “no, and it is a surprising pleasure to have you early rather than late. Though may I ask what possessed you to enter like that?”. 

Danny snickers at him, “ghost. Kinda the only thing ‘round here that possesses anyone”, pointing at him, “though it really was a ghost fight”. 

Lancer looks up at the ceiling and nods, guessing that since he knew now it made sense for the boy not to put much effort into pretending otherwise. Looking Daniel over, “well you seem alright so I doubt it was much hassle. How do you appear human? Are you... partly alive again?”. 

Danny shakes his head, “no, this is just an illusion. A power I have”. 

Mr. Lancer nods and resists frowning. Guess it would be too much to hope complete death would be something his student could avoid or at the least reverse. Even if his apparent death resulted in kingship and ultimate power, as if straight out of an epic fantasy novel. “Speaking of power, how are you with your royal position? And your apparent honestly ridiculous amount power? While you have been through much, you are still a child”.

Danny huffs and rolls his shoulders, “the power I hardly notice. But as for the king thing”, rubbing his neck, “that’s official but hasn’t _technically_ activated yet”, phasing through the desktop and landing in the chair just to lean back in it, “I mean, I know I’m going to work towards more, er, _peaceful_ relations between the mortals and ghosts. Not to mention deal with the walking prison corruption issue and a few war skirmishes”. Grumbling a bit to himself, “here’s hoping I don’t have to deal with taxes or some shit”. 

Danny goes cross-eyed glaring at the icy mist from his mouth, glaring more at it sensing like an Observant. Danny turns around at Mr. Lancer’s wide-eyed gaping. Danny’s not even slightly surprised to see two Observants. Growling slightly at them, “what do you eyeballs want?”. 

“Know that we don’t truly agree with this-”.

Danny cuts in by enthusiastically asking, “and who’s surprised by that?”, then deadpanning, “no one”. 

The Observants feel like they are glaring. Deciding it is in everyone’s best interest the two simply do their job with haste. One floating over slowly enough to not elicit an attack or major paranoia from the battle-hardened king, holding up a string of twisted together flowers and tying them around the child’s neck, “consider that a placeholder. May the lands grow with you”. Then promptly disappearing. 

Danny blinks down at the weaved together moonflowers, ghost pipes, purple asters, green lilies, blue morning glories, and red poppies, quirking an eyebrow as it pops to transform into a nearly dainty silver necklace with a single shimmering white gold moonflower pendant. Looking back to Mr. Lancer, “whelp, that just happened”. Who just blinks owlishly back at him. 

Danny has to clear his throat to shake the stunned teacher out of his shock as other teens start coming in. A few pausing to mutter, “Danny’s here early? What is this? The apocalypse?”. 

Mr. Lancer takes attendance a little jerkily after a beat. Is every conversation Danny has with the teacher going to end in him freaking the guy out? Eh, might as well keep the trend going, 

Mr. Lancer grabs Daniel’s arm to pause him from leaving class. Speaking as Daniel looks to him, “so this role, your throne, you intend to take it seriously?”. 

Danny nods immediately, “course. It’s not too much of a step up from what I already do. I’ll just be more involved in the Zone rather than just here”, nodding his head towards the window, “and there’ll be less attacks here, leaving me with more free time to actually do the job right”, nodding to himself before looking back to Mr. Lancer, “and it’s not like I lack the respect. Ghosts already listen to me when I get serious”. 

Mr. Lancer raises an eyebrow, “you are not normally serious? With all the fights?”.

“Course not, most of the fights here are sparring matches or like chastising misbehaving kids more than anything”, snorting, “and Boxy is just a punching bag. Though I don’t think _anyone_ takes him seriously”. 

“The ghost yesterday?”.

Danny shrugs, “sparring match, or would have been anyway. Any ghost who’s a regular is practically never a serious fight”, rubbing his neck, “if I fought Technus seriously and went all out, I would destroy him. And I don’t do that”. 

Mr. Lancer nods and shoos him off, “I do not think this town realises you are so strong. And many might prefer if you _did_ destroy them, though I’m personally glad you do not”. There is very _very_ little that would make Lancer pro-murder and destroying a ghost would be murder. Already dead or not. And he certainly wouldn’t want to see a teen okay with committing it. 

Danny chuckles, “oh I know the town doesn’t. Same with how me being worshiped and knighted isn’t common knowledge”, smirking at catching the teacher off guard again before looking more serious, “I have never and hopefully will never internally destroyed a ghost, and I’m not okay with anyone who easily would”. Then turning to walk off towards his next class. Turning his head back around at catching Mr. Lancer say, “and your parents?”.

“We’ve had a few _conversations_. And they’ve sworn off wanting ghosts destroyed now”. Mr. Lancer gives him a curt nod and actually looks pleased. 

* * *

By the time lunch rolls around he’s lost his form a total of three times, twice in front of other people. The second being Dale, who absolutely did not keep his mouth shut; based on the odd looks he’s getting anyways. Sam shakes her head at him after looking around and sitting, likely taking in all the weird glances he was getting. Danny was weirded out that some actually looked a little _afraid_. Which fine, being scared of a ghost in this town was logical, but still. 

Sam sighs, “why, of all the times, would people start noticing your spooky shit _now_ ”. 

Tucker snorts and points at him, “she’s totally right you know, you walking through vending machines and falling through the floor randomly should have been way more noticeable”. All three snicker. 

Danny eats a bit of the -surprisingly not shit, the home ec kids must be doing lunch today- pancakes, “tell me about it. Mikey actually _flinched_ away from me in gym”, grimacing, “at this point I’m stuck having to tell everyone, just to not be treated like _that_ ”. Both of them nod understandingly. 

Tucker points at him, “and have you checked Twitter dude? People are going nuts over your new look”. Danny sighs, he had explicitly avoided social media for that very reason, which was probably dumb to do. Okay it definitely was, he really needed to know how people were reacting to him and hope to everything that they weren’t fearful. Considering how the new look was permanent. 

Sam nods, “yup. Before you freak Danny, most seem to just think you are ‘growing up’ and are going to ‘look like an adult’ soon”. 

Danny blinks, “how the Zone did people reach that conclusion? I mean, they’re not _wrong_ that ghosts change when we grow up, but that’s not common knowledge. And that doesn’t even happen to every child ghost. Somehow I doubt Young Blood is ever going to grow up”. All three make faces at that, none really wanting to imagine an adult Young Blood; it just seemed _wrong_. 

Danny covers his eyes and groans when a ball whizzes past his head, startling him just enough to make his hair flicker to flames for a second; gray not white, but still. Danny muttering, “goddamnit”. 

Sam and Tucker cringe, Tucker pointing at him, “you being tired probably isn’t helping either”.

Danny sighs, “no, probably not”, looking up at the sound of the bell before stuffing what’s left of his food in his mouth. Sure everything tasted a bit different now, but not necessarily in a bad way. 

Sam nudges him as they get up, “you know you don’t need to eat around us if you don’t want to”. 

Danny shakes out his limbs a little, he was starting to not feel so great but it’s not like feeling a bit like shit was anything all that new for him. He could put up with it at its current level. Rolling his eyes, “I enjoy it. Though I’m definitely not going to eat things that taste like shit now”. Earning laughs. 

Snapping his fingers at them as they sit in physics class, “Oh and you know, I think Mr. Lancer might wind up qualifying as an actual ‘friend’ soon”. 

Tucker snorts, “Not surprised, that guy’s a hard ass but still pretty okay. I’d say ‘cool’ but him and ‘cool’ don’t exist in the same sentence”, making all three laugh until Danny’s phone goes off. 

Him raising both eyebrows practically to his hairline, “oh what the fuck? It’s _Vlad_ ”. 

Both of them respond with, “he’s actually _calling you_ ”. And mouthing ‘wow’ when Danny nods his head while picking up the call. 

“Damn Vladdie, actually calling instead of just dropping on my head or shooting me? What? did you discover you’re actually a girl from another dimension who’s hopelessly in love with me?”, then deadpanning, “you better say no to that”. 

_“ **That** is why I never call you. I’ve heard wind of a situation with you and was looking to confirm, so I’ll be straight with you. Daniel, have you fully **died**?”. _

Danny sighs and looks up as the teacher enters, this likely wasn’t a ‘just a second’ kind of call. Vlad was about to get confirmation that he was indeed the only natural halfa again. So Danny stands up and attempts at making his face look completely earnest and smiling. Covering up the mic as he moves to the door, “sorry, my uncle wants to know if I’m dead and we need to have a talk”. Ms. Remi looks very unimpressed but like most teachers, doesn’t attempt to stop him from leaving. Danny can absolutely hear his friends trying not to laugh and multiple other teens choking. Yeah, he so wasn’t hiding this. 

Danny leans on a wall outside the school, “alright, I’m not where ears can hear”, sighing, “yeah Vlad, yeah I have”. 

_“How? I thought that, that wasn’t possible. Daniel, **who**? It wasn’t **them**?”._

Danny runs a hand through his hair, “I've known it’s possible for a while now. Just not while a halfa is actually whole. And no Vlad. It wasn’t any ghost you know and it definitely _wasn’t_ my folks”, putting some power into his voice, “and if you go looking into who this ghost is, we are going to have some _issues_. So leave. It. Alone”. 

It takes a bit for Vlad to respond, _“very well, child”_ , clearing his throat, _“so you were spit, your two halves separated, and the human one killed, I take it”._

“That’s the gist of it yeah. And before you ask, yes my folks know. And no, they don’t know about you. And I don’t intend to tell them”. 

Vlad makes an approving hum, which is probably the closest Danny’s going to get to a ‘thank you’. _“And they are not treating you unwell?”,_ he sighs, _“and Daniel, I’m sorry. If you would like, I’d be happy to pay for any **arrangements** ”. _

Danny sighs himself, knowing damn well that was just a nice way of saying ‘funeral’ or ‘help you flee the country’. “They’ve been good. Not happy, obviously. But good. And I’d rather not do anything, but with how things have been going, the town’s probably going to know, like, as a whole. So maybe a funeral, maybe”. 

_“Do let me know. As for your parents, I can’t say I’m surprised Maddie’s been good”_ , huffing, _“How your father has is beyond me”._

Danny rolls his eyes and snarks back, “can’t even be decent for one phone call, can you Fruitloop? And I will Vlad, this is one time I’m willing to let you do something for me”, then smirking, “oh and in case you haven’t heard yet, I am totally your king now. Bye!”, and hangs up to a rather undignified squawk from Vlad. Which fine, is very personally satisfying. 

Humming happily to himself before pushing off the wall, only to jerk and yelp from something stabbing his arm; thankfully managing to hold onto his human disguise though. Whirling around only to come face to face with Val, who’s holding a pencil that’s dripping ectoplasm; because _of course it is_ , dammit. Guess the transformation is very literally only skin deep; or technically only ‘outer ectoplasmic layer deep’. 

Valerie glances from him to the pencil to him, “guess it is true”, then glaring, “what’re you doing wearing Danny’s skin, ghost”. 

“Hey now, I think I have the right to wear my own face”, then blinking and tilting his head, “and that’s not something I ever imagined I’d be saying”. 

Danny puts up his hands when Val actually growls slightly at him, feeling just slightly concerned when he hears the creaking of her suit starting to activate. He was in danger. So he smartly mentally says ‘fuck it’ and phases through the wall of the school. Immediately having to apologise to the tenth graders he just scared the crap out of, “sorry! Someone’s mildly trying to murder me! Have a good day! Or at least a better one than I am!”, while running off. 

Definitely hearing one of them mutter, “did that seriously just happen? And wasn’t that Fenton?”. Before the same voices yelp accompanied by the sound of a hoverboard, “holy shit! He wasn’t kidding!”. While Danny’s just trying to focus on one, not losing his form; and two, running instead of flying. 

Turning a corner while texting his friends to come save his ass. 

_Thealiveone: I’m ded. V’s tryin to off me_

_Thealiveone: thinks I stole my own face_

_PDAxpda: **wheeze**_

Then looking up at all the people at their lockers, great, he missed his entire class. He was totally going to fail physics. Fuck. Snapping at the group when he hears Red’s in the same hallway as him, “okay! What one of you assholes told the hunter I’m _not_ related to!?!”. He should just give up on hiding this at this point. Because being chased by a ghost hunter was not only insanely noticeable but effectively blew any chance of keeping this quiet out of the water. Like someone trying to use a bomb to go fishing. Everyone gives him innocent yet sympathetic looks, the same kind usually given to people when his folks accidentally shot them. 

Danny turns the corner just in time to avoid a blast that scorches the wall. Turning to head towards the nearest bathroom only to get bodily grabbed and pulled in anyways. Smiling at seeing his two friends, “damn that was fast you two”. Both only get to huff at him in annoyance before stepping in front of him as Red practically barges in. Danny gets her likely anger, totally does. If some ghost was pretending to be his friends he’d be pissed too, except that’s _not_ what’s going on here. 

Red snaps at the two teens, “move. That’s _not Danny_ ”. Not exactly enjoying having to be cold and harsh to her sorta friends. 

Sam snaps, “yes he is”. Tucker nods and pats Danny on the shoulder with a smile, “same Danny, just, you know, deader”. Danny and Sam glare at him. Because just straight up telling a ghost hunter than someone is a ghost, is grade A dumb. 

Red snaps, “bullshit. He’s not- Danny’s not _dead_ ”. 

Danny rubs his neck, “uh, yeah, yeah _I_ am”, shrugging, “goin’ on either year three soon here or day two, depending how you wanna look at it”. 

Some guy sticks his head out of one of the stalls making everyone turn to look at him. Him sweating and shaking slightly, “um, c-can I g-go?”. All three step to the side, allowing the guy to bolt out of the bathroom. None of them say anything for a while before Danny snorts and starts laughing, Sam and Tucker joining in. 

Tucker wheezes, “you are, so not, hiding, _shit_. Oh my Zone!”, and laughing more. 

Danny pretty well just gives up on holding his form and lets it disappear with the passing of his rings. Laughing, a three basically leaning on each other. “I know! Oh man!”. 

Valerie sputters incoherently, finally lowering her weapon. She has no goddamn idea what’s going on, but those rings. She’s seen those before. On _Elle_. On _Vlad_. On _half ghosts_. What the fuck. But then? But that meant? This _wasn’t_ a ghost wearing someone's form. It was... a half ghost? in their human form? _Danny_... staring at the group, all she could make out of him was flaming white hair and spots of blue skin, from how the three were a tangled laughing mess. Tucker and Sam were paying no mind to the change. _At all_. They’ve seen him like this already. We’re comfortable with it. And Elle’s black hair turned white. Vlad’s white hair turned black. Danny’s? black hair was white. And Vlad had teal skin. Lowering her weapon completely, “Danny?”. 

The three were only wheezing at this point and trying to collect themselves, Valerie’s voice effectively shutting them up. Though Tucker still wheezes a little. Danny turns his head to her, blinking his green eyes, “yeah. Done trying to destruct me?”, chuckling, “not that you actually could. Just the sentiment of it, y’ know?”. 

Tucker pushes Danny off him while Valerie just numbly nods and deactivates her hoverboard to plant her feet on the ground. Staring at Danny, at the _DP insignia_. What the Zone is going on??? Sounding ridiculously confused, “Phantom?”. 

Sam rolls her eyes, “get with the program, Valerie. Danny and Phantom are the same person”. 

“What? But? You? But?-”

Danny cuts her off and walks over slightly in front of his friends, letting her get a good look at him, “your first suit didn’t hide your voice. We’ve always known. And um, sorry I never told you”, shrugging and looking around, “you _were_ kinda always trying to blow me up after all”. 

Valerie slumps against the far wall, deactivating her suit and just staring at the three, looking like she was debating on going on a three-day alcoholic bender. Snapping a bit tiredly, “explain”. 

Sam immediately snaps at her, “he doesn’t owe you on-”.

Danny cuts her off by putting a gloved hand to her chest, “yeah Sam, yeah I do”, then looking to Val, “I half died a few years ago, Val”, rubbing his neck, “I wasn’t exactly _good_ at the whole ghost fighting and just straight up being one, back then. And Cujo is _still not my dog_. He’s attracted to serve, or be the pet of I guess, the strongest ghost in any given area”, grumbling, “rarely listens though”. 

Valerie looks down and nods, she had somewhat forgiven him for that incident. “So you... died, and just decided to fight ghosts?”.

Danny snarks back, “so you lost your wealth and just decided to fight ghosts?”, shrugging and snicking ar her glare, “pretty much yeah. Someone had to”.

Tucker snorts, “not like your folks are actually all that good at it. And the G.I.W.? talk about a joke”, making all four of them laugh a little. 

Valerie shakes her head and looks to the side, “so I’ve been hunting my friend and a _human_ this whole time?”.

All three nod, “yep”. Sam glares at Danny, “and this idiot dated you while you were trying to”. Danny rolls his eyes totally unapologetically. 

Valerie blinks at him, “you moron”, sighing, “I get why you didn’t tell me. Hell, I wouldn’t have told me”, pushing off the wall, she felt a little better now. This explained his cousin looking like him. Gesturing over his appearance, “what’s with the change?”. 

Danny sighs and rubs a hand through his flames, Valerie eyeballing that while he talks, “well, I’m not a halfa anymore. As of two days ago, like I said”, poking the flowers, “these are just, like, status placeholders”. Tucker snorts. 

Valerie goes a little wide-eyed, “so you’re fully dead. You died, again”. Valerie clenches her fists when the three nod, “how? Could it have been avoided?”.

Danny shrugs, “ghost fight”, chuckling a little, “figures right?”, then sighing, “but no. That fight had to happen. Had to go the way it did. Or some world endingly bad shit would have happened”. 

Tucker poked him, “don't think you explained that to us dude”. 

Danny’s cheeks flush green and he rubs his neck, “me and _him_ had the same claim, except he was older. You can probably figure out what that would mean”. 

Both Sam and Tucker pale. Sam muttering, “that would be incredibly bad, Danny”. Danny just nods.

Valerie clears her throat, “I have no clue what you’re talking about. But I haven’t exactly earned you telling me everything that’s gone on in your existence or whatever”, walking forward and little and holding out her hand, “but, friends?”. 

Danny looks from her hand to her face, “of course”, shaking her hand with a smile. But jerking and forcefully pulling out his transformation at the sound of the door opening. 

All four lock eyes with Mr. Trent, who looks to each one of them and sighs, “do I even want to know?”. With the two teens most notorious for disappearing, shaking hands and the Fenton boy’s two friends flanking him like bodyguards, this absolutely looked like a gang deal being made. 

Tucker chuckles, “probably not”. 

Mr. Trent grumbles, “just don’t set the bathroom on fire or something while I’m in it”, and heads for a stall. 

Danny whispers, baffled, at the others, “have you ever seen a teacher use the bathrooms?”. All three shake their heads rapidly. 

* * *

The three aren’t really surprised Valerie rushes to walk with them after school, “is it okay if I tag along?”. 

Sam and Tucker look to Danny, making it clear it was his choice. Danny shrugs, “don't see why not. My folks know about the dying thing, just so you know and to avoid any confusion”. She nods and falls in step with them. 

Valerie speaking up after a bit, “so if you’re, y’ know, how do you still look _alive_ right now?”. 

Danny chuckles, “special ability. Still getting used to it, obviously”. Sam and Tucker snicker at him. 

Tucker claps him on the back, “yeah, you’ve lost your form at least ten times today alone”, shrugging exaggeratedly, “still better than you falling through the ground or accidentally turning your pants intangible”. 

Danny groans and puts a hand over his face, “don’t remind me”, and intentionally shudders for comedic effect. 

Valerie snorts, “were you really _that bad_? How did no one notice that?”.

The three responded in unison, “we have no idea”. 

Tucker leans over to her, “and that’s nothing”, jabbing a thumb at Danny, “when he gained his ecto-beam he repeatedly accidentally shot me with it. In the face usually”. 

Danny throws his hands up, “at least I was weak back then!”.

Sam snorts, “yeah, if you did that now you’d probably kill him”. 

Danny frowns at her, “now that’s just mean”. Even if it was arguably true. 

Valerie quirks an eyebrow, “you were weak once? And tell me that’s an exaggeration”. 

Tucker points at Danny, “dude literally obliterated half a forest two months back and one-shot disintegrated one of those clones of his a long ass time ago”. 

Valerie’s eyebrows shoot up and looks to Danny, “ _clones_. You have _clones_ ”. Sam and Tucker give Danny very confused looks. 

“Uh dude, I thought you told her?”. 

Danny chuckles awkwardly and blushes something fierce, “Elle doesn’t like being called a clone”. 

Valerie screws her face up, “and here I though you were cousins. What the fuck Danny”. Sam and Tucker facepalm. 

Danny shrugs, yes it was fucked, hence why neither of them thought much about it. But fucked up was pretty come by for him these days. Time for a subject change, “so we telling my folks about Red? Or is that just an us secret”. 

Sam rolls her eyes, “smooth”. Danny flips her off. 

Valerie glares at him a little, but fine, if she knew Elle was a _clone_ she would have made the obvious conclusion that Phantom had to be just like her. A half-ghost. Huffing, “I’d rather _not_ have my job be known while I’m still a minor, but with the town definitely knowing Fenton is Phantom then they’re going to...just assume... that”, pausing and squinting at Danny who’s smirking like an idiot, “you motherfucker”, then smacking him over the head, “that _rhymes_. The fuck is wrong with you?”. Danny’s shit-eating grin doesn’t so much as falter even if his skin tinted blue for a second there. Rolling her eyes at him, “like I was about to say, the town’s just going to assume Fenton is friends with the hunter that Phantom has a truce with. Which will leave them guessing either me or Sam”. 

Sam snorts, “like anyone would think _I’m_ Red”. 

Valerie and Danny pointing at her, “exactly”. And they walk up the steps to FentonWorks. 

Danny glancing at Val with his hand on the door nob, “so?”. 

Valerie sighs, “they can know, I guess”. Danny opens the door. 

Maddie and Jack raise their eyebrows at the four kids. Tucker pointing at Valerie, “she’s the Red Huntress and they’ve got a truce, this shouldn’t be surprising”. 

Both adults gape at them while Valerie smacks Tucker over the head, “not like that! You ass!”. 

Danny just laughs while going to sit at the table, happily laying his head down on it. Ancients he was tired and his ectoplasm felt rather thin and light. 

Maddie raises a concerned eyebrow at him, “you okay sweetie?”. Effectively drawing everyone’s attention. 

Danny waves her off while his friends join them around the (mildly crowded) table, “just starting to push it with how long I can sustain myself outta the Zone”. Everyone predictably frowns. 

Pushing himself up to lean against his chair, pointing at Val, “hey, you’re pretty decent at the whole press conference crap? Feel like helping drop the dead kid bomb on the town?”. 

“Goddamnit Danny, _fine_ ”.

Tucker looks to the Fenton’s confused faces, “basically the whole school knows. Dude lost his form a bunch and people are _apparently much_ more observant nowadays”. 

Sam shrugs, “considering all the ghost attacks being commonplace, makes sense to pay attention to the possibility of something ghostly”. 

Danny groans, “doesn’t make it less annoying”. 

Maddie shakes her head but smiles, ruffling Danny’s hair, who predictably bats her hand away, “I’m sure it’ll work out. But I’m guessing a funeral is definitely unavoidable now”. 

Valerie snorts, “I don’t think you could _pay_ the town not to give Phantom one”, scratching at her head, “probably same with me”, glaring at Tucker, “I still can’t believe you”. 

Maddie shakes her head, “speaking of you, aren’t you a little young to be hunting ghosts?”. Valerie just huffs and rolls her eyes a little. 

Jack waves Maddie off, “oh who cares Mads! She’s good! We’ve all got our callings!”, turning to Danny, “I’ve been thinking we could actually make something to help sustain you! At least a little longer anyway”, dramatically presenting a little belt-like thing, “just absorbs ectoplasm from the Zone like a rechargeable battery and then you could sap from it!”. 

Danny chuckles a little before jumping from him just outright losing his form, startling the crap out everyone else, rubbing his neck awkwardly and blushing green, “whelp, there’s the limit of that. And I’ll try it out dad”. His dad easily beams and slaps the table. 

Sam shakes her head at him, “how long do you think that lasted? Your disguise?”, and sending a slight glare at Valerie for staring at Danny a bit. 

Danny wiggles his hand in the air, “‘round twenty-four hours I think”.

Tucker smirks, “that’s not bad”. 

Maddie smiles, glad it would last long enough for him to be living passing most of the time. Even if it likely had a recovery period of some kind. Turning to the stove to plate everyone’s food, glad she made enough for everyone; their house sure was getting rather crowded, thanks to their ghostly son that was much more involved in their profession than they ever could have imagined. 


End file.
